Web Page  No 2192

8th September 2015

Top Picture: Hercules Shop Bike

 Second Picture: Cyclemaster

Third Picture: Walls Ice Cream Bike

Street Scene

I looked out of our front window the other day and there in the road was a man with a two wheeled trolley, a brush and a shovel, he was cleaning out the gutters and curbs. He must have been the first Road Sweeper that I have seen anywhere for years. This got me to thinking about the other things that we took for granted on our streets when we were young and we see around no longer. Whilst in the gutter do you remember those strange vacuum tankers with the long elephantine style trunks attached so that they could visit each individual drain in the street and suck up the fallen leaves and muck that had drifted into them to keep them clear.

Now let us look at some of the other road users. The first obvious one to look at is the AA or RAC man with his shiny motorbike and sidecar, looking smart and efficient in his riding britches, gauntlets and crash helmets and ready to salute any member who passed. During our youth the patrols were always male, the AA did not employ any female patrols until 1988 and the RAC not until 199. Not many people realise that there was a strict hierarchy within these two organisations and a Patrol Inspector or Chief Inspector, in full uniform with gold braid, could turn up at any time and demand to inspect not only the patrolman for neatness and cleanliness but also the contents of his sidecar and panniers. At this period of time the patrolmen were obliged to write up note books for each incident and the Inspector would make a point of examining these as well.

This was the era of unusual vehicles on the road and the three wheeled vans built around a motorcycle chassis were an example of them (A friend owned one as his first car, it was an ex sweeps van and we never did get rid of the smell and residue of the soot). They were unusual vehicles with a central driving position (handle bars and a twist grip not a steering wheel and accelerator and the clutch and gear change were on the left hand side of the handlebars rather like the motor scooter arrangement). These vans had a form of basic girder suspension poking out from the centre of the front of the cab, they also had a motorcycle headlight attached to this suspension mechanism.

I remember window cleaners calling round to our house, sometimes with the ladders and buckets carried on a homemade side car attached to a motorcycle but more often than not this type of customised side car was attached to a basic three speed push bike and the window cleaner had to cycle the whole of his round with this strange item attached to his bike.

Bicycles were also the preferred form of transport for the local knife grinder and sharpener. The specially made bicycle had a grindstone attached to the front of it and by jacking up the back wheel and applying a rubbing wheel to the bicycle rear tyre the knife grinder could drive the grindstone wheel to sharpen your knives, shears or scissors.

Uniformed Telegram or Telegraph Boys on their little 125cc BSA Bantam’s were a common sight and a sight dreaded by many mothers a few years earlier during the hostilities, because a visit from the telegraph boy could only mean one thing, injury to a loved one or worse.

Shop delivery bikes were common, not just the one used by Granville in Open All Hours. The grocer had a lad who would deliver on a shop bike as did the butcher, the florist and fishmonger.

Corona deliveries came by lorries and they each had their regular rounds as were paraffin deliveries in vans, coal deliveries and many other utilities.

The one thing that always comes to mind about this period of time are policemen on bikes, always cycling with their helmets on their heads, cycle clips tightly around the trousers and a waterproof coat or mackintosh strapped over the handlebars.

When I start writing like this I really do realise that at last I am getting old!!!!! or maybe just older!!!!!

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Anida Writes:

I was interested in the picture of Charlotte Street market as co-incidentally my Mum and I were talking about it only last week.  I remember it as a girl of course and I used to love going there on a Saturday when there were lots of different stalls but the ones I liked best were the China stalls the salesmen, surely forebears of Del Boy, would somehow manage to put a whole tea set along one arm and reduce the price 'not a pound, not 15 Bob but to you ladies just 10 bob'.  My Mum goes back even further of course and my Grandmother told me how she used to visit it in the evening with her mother to get things cheap.  It would be lit with flares and would be full of noise and smells, if they were lucky they would be able to buy a joint of meat for the next day. In the picture you have posted I think that is the end of Meadow Street?  At the Commercial Road end Burtons was on one corner and Dunns the gentleman's outfitters on the other. Halfway down was the Shirt King, the place to go for every discerning young man who aspired to sartorial cool in the 1950's and 60's.

As Mum's memory is brilliant about her childhood and youth, we have been walking North End and Commercial Road shop by shop it's amazing the detail she can remember!  Incidentally I assume that the picture of the ladies in uniform is that of First World War workers at the gas works? 

Chris Writes:-

I remember my parents in the 1960s got so fed up with all the morse code interference on medium wave radio from the naval communications that they went out and bought one of the early VHF sets to cure the problem.

On this day 8th September 1960-1965

On 08/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/09/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/09/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/09/1964 the number one single was Have I the Right? - Honeycombs and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/09/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.